Update: The 160-Year-Old Landmarked Serbian Church Might Get Rebuilt After All

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For a while, it didn't seem like the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava was going to survive after Easter candles accidentally caused a fire on May 1st.

The four-alarm fire largely gutted the building, and Curbed reports that since the fire three months ago, church officials have been meeting with city agencies to come up with a plan to rebuilt the church.

This is welcome news, considering the 160-year-old cathedral almost had its landmark status taken away.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission of New York City still does not have a concrete plan of what the reconstructed church would look like– that process could take anywhere between six months and a year.

But in the meantime, the structure of the building is being reinforced and fitted with metal beams.

Plans that involve shoring and bracing the walls of the building facing 25th street, as well as waterproofing, are estimated to be done by September.

Metro reports that when that is completed, it will also allow renovations to begin inside the parish hall.

Since the congregation obviously can't hold services at the Serbian church, Sunday services have been held at an Episcopal church on West 21st Street, the Chapel of the Good Shepherd but a few weeks ago, parishioners prayed at the site of the fire.

Since the blaze, congregants have been praying under an icon of St. Sava that survived in the church office, despite everything else in the room getting charred.

Lidija Nikolic, a church executive board member, who attends the meetings about the next steps for the church remains optimistic, saying, "... Even if we lost our beloved cathedral building, we have our living
church — our congregation, our Serbian community in New York. We have each other."